Summertime!

Summer is definitely here, and it has been here for quite awhile.  (My husband says it's been here since February, as we are having an especially long and  HOT summer!) My sketchbook, when I've had a few minutes to sketch, is showing summery images, with the top three of these being from the Sktchy app muse photos. I have been making an attempt to use more of an illustrator style in these sketches.

The sketchbook hasn't been as active as it should be, as I've had other fun summer activities going on, like fishing with my grandkids, and dealing with fresh Colorado fruit. In fact, yesterday I baked a pie that I call my 'clean out the refrigerator pie,' using up tail ends of fruit. This one had blueberries, strawberries, rhubarb, and a cupful of gooseberries from our yard in it. It was actually pretty tasty, with a scoop of ice cream on top!

If I'd have been more observant, there were a very few apricots left from our tree that I could have also thrown in the pie. I guess I'll have to make another one. This final sketch is of some of our apricots. We didn't get as many this year as we have in the past, but they were sweet and are now mostly in the freezer, ready to fill future pies.

I do have my Mirrix loom warped, ready to weave something, when I get inspiration and time. And I have begun, in my mind at least, a new project! If anything comes of it, you, dear blog followers, will be the first to know!

Note: I have shut down my FaceBook account for the summer. Some very strange things were happening, seeming to give me less control of my account access. But you can find me here and on Instagram. Stay cool.... and I will try to do the same!

Travel....

The last month has been very busy, but not necessarily with creative things. We have done a bit of traveling, and I have used car time to do a bit of sketching along the way.

We first went on a three-day road trip to the Grand Canyon, where neither my husband nor I had ever been. Here are a few of my travel sketches. They are not 'great art, ' but they will do what they are intended: help me to remember what I have seen, and the feelings I captured there. The last sketch, of the canyon itself, is the sketch I am least 'happy' with. I sat sketching it en plain aire, in 100 degree heat, with people all around me, interrupting me constantly. I have discovered I don't enjoy that at all!  I think I need to be in a quieter (and cooler) place to sketch or paint from life. When I look at the sketch, I feel hot and irritated.

One of the things I love to do is to have my pages stamped at National parks. I also have pages with photos, postcards, and things I collected along the way.

We also have been on a second road trip. These two pages are from one looooong day, as we traveled by car across the entire width, west to east, of both Colorado and Kansas, to see my father-in-law for Father's Day and his 97th birthday. (Not a typo; he is 97!) I sketched a bit as we went across the 800 miles. While in the Colorado mountains it was mostly still dark and I hadn't had enough caffeine, so I missed sketching the most scenic and familiar part of the trip. By the time we left Denver and were out on the plains, the scenery doesn't change much. But I was fascinated by the roadside signs in the wheat fields! It was very hot (again above 100 degrees) and windy like only the Kansas plains can be windy. I have done, and am working on, a few more pages dedicated to that trip, so I may share them soon. I try to at least plan the pages as I travel, and complete them as soon as I can after the trip, if I can't sketch as we are traveling.

Other creative work has been on hold while we've been road-tripping, having company, and doing some house and yard work. I do have a small loom warped, but the month ahead looks much like the past one, so I will just try to steal some moments to design and plan for the time when I will have the time to weave again.

Mellow Yellow!

watercolor in Stillman and Birn Delta sketchbook

I noticed that I seem to have a lot of images in my 'to sketch' folder on the Sktchy App that feature the color yellow. So I have begun to clear them out by sketching them! I have also been experimenting a bit with different media, using some of the many art supplies I 'discovered' recently when I cleaned out my studio closet.

pastel and charcoal on grey paper

watercolor and ink in sketchbook

watercolor and ink in sketchbook

watercolor pencils and ink, but I wish I'd used pastels!

watercolor and colored pencils in sketchbook

The above sketches are all about the same size; about 5"x6" in my sketchbook. The two sketches below are a bit larger, about 6"x8" on pastel paper. I did the one on grey paper first, but was not happy with either Gus or the greyed down color, so I did the same image on white pastel paper, which I had underpainted a bit with acrylic markers. That gave me the brilliant yellow of our new summer comforter, and it's contrast with Gus, which is what I wanted!

pastels on toned paper

pastels and acrylic markers on white pastel paper

I still have many more yellow images in my 'to sketch' queue, but I think I will move on, for now. A couple of these will find their way to my Etsy shop, either as originals or as prints. And I think the final version of Gus just might find itself framed and on my guest room wall, along with tapestries, photos, and paintings of other pets.

A New Website!

I have been working on creating a new website, in spite of my severe limitations with digital 'stuff!' I am not done with it, but am hoping to 'get by with a little help from my friends,' so if you give it a look and have some helpful input, I'd truly love to hear it! 

I will be adding small tapestries next, then a gallery page for non-fiber work.

You can access this work-in-progress by going HERE.

More Pages from My Sketchbook....

I have still been doing occasional sketches, though I've been having trouble keeping up a daily routine. Several of the sketches are ending up in my Etsy shop, as prints. When I update the shop next week, there will be more, and a few originals. But I have been very busy otherwise lately. When I get too busy to sketch, and  also and especially when I'm too busy to weave, I get very fussy. So, in addition to being busy, you can know I've been a bit grumpy.

I do have a small tapestry floating around in my brain, wanting to get onto the loom. But it will have to wait a short while. Maybe next week, though! I can always look forward to next week.

Otherwise in my life: the flowering crab is in full bloom, as are the lilacs and my bleeding heart (which makes me happy, as I wasn't sure it would survive our dry winter.) The western screech owls in the box in our tree have hatched five owlets! We are very excited about that! We are taking a short weekend trip to the Grand Canyon, which we've never seen. I hope to overcome my fear of heights enough to do some sketching there.

Stay creative! It keeps us happy....... In the meantime, here are a couple of photos from the Owl cam in the owl box.

5 huddled baby owls

Mama sits on them to keep them warm

A few sketches from March....

Last month I did a '30 journal pages in 30 days' online challenge. I think I missed one or two days, but I filled a lot of my sketch journal! Here are a few of the pages from the challenge. Most were posted on my IG account.

I tried to use as many different media as I could. So these have been done in colored pencils, ballpoint pens, acrylic paint markers, pastels, watercolor, and more. Plus, added ephemera.

Happy March 17th!

I am doing a 30-day sketch journal challenge this month. I will share some of my other sketches here before the month is out, I'm sure. This is today's sketchbook spread. I took this challenge on because I felt my personal sketchbook journal was being neglected, and I am enjoying getting back into this habit again. Today I loved listening to my Irish music while I did this. So when I look at the sketch, I hear The Cranberries, Enya, Clannad, The Clancy Brothers and more. I need to play that playlist more often!

I've been battling bronchitis, along with just about everybody else, I think, so have been quite low energy. But I did get the small tapestry lined and packed, ready to go in the mail to the exhibit on Monday.